Data Brokers
How Data Brokers Price and Sell Your Information
The short version
Your personal data is cheap in bulk and expensive at retail. When Duke University researchers bought identified records on US military personnel, they paid 12 to 32 cents per person, and one broker's rate card dropped to one cent per record above 1.5 million people. A consumer people-search subscription, meanwhile, runs tens of dollars a month. Brokers make money on volume, not on you specifically - which is why nobody in the chain has a reason to leave you out.
What your personal data actually sells for
Individual records sell for pennies. In a 12-month study published in November 2023, researchers at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy bought identified contact records on US servicemembers and veterans from data brokers at $0.12 to $0.32 per person. Some brokers advertised as little as $0.01 per person on large orders.
The scale is worth sitting with. From a US domain, the Duke team bought 34,951 identified contact records from three brokers for $6,931.69, an average of under 20 cents each. From a .asia domain they bought 15,048 more for $3,362. No background checks were run on the buyers.
Those prices come from one study of one population, so treat them as a documented sample rather than a universal price list. They are still among the only receipt-backed prices published for an industry that normally negotiates behind non-disclosure agreements.
The four ways brokers package you
Brokers do not sell "your data" as one item. The 2013 US Senate Commerce Committee staff report on the industry described four recurring product shapes, and all four still run the business. They explain why an opt-out at one company does not follow your record anywhere else.
- List sales. Bulk lists of people sharing a trait, bought thousands of names at a time. Committee staff were told segments are priced and sold by the thousand.
- Data append. A customer has partial records - names and ZIP codes, or emails - and pays a broker to fill in the gaps.
- Segments. Groupings of consumers by shared traits and likely behavior, sold as ready-made audiences.
- Scores. Predictive numbers about how you will behave, sold without your permission or knowledge of the underlying data.
The Senate report published the segment names brokers were selling, including "Rural and Barely Making It," "Retiring on Empty: Singles," "Tough Start: Young Single Parents," and "Credit Crunched: City Families." One product was marketed to help clients "identify and more effectively market to under-banked consumers."
What one record costs: the volume discount
The clearest window into broker pricing is a rate card one broker handed the Duke researchers. It prices basic contact records - names, emails, addresses - on a sliding scale, and the slide is steep: the per-person price falls 95 percent between a 2,500-record order and a 1.5-million-record one.
| Records purchased | Price per person | Total order cost |
|---|---|---|
| 2,500 | $0.20 | $500 |
| 10,000 | $0.10 | $1,000 |
| 50,000 | $0.07 | $3,500 |
| 250,000 | $0.04 | $10,000 |
| 1,000,000 | $0.015 | $15,000 |
| 1,500,000+ | $0.01 | $15,000+ |
Rate card quoted to researchers by one broker for servicemember and veteran records. Source: Sherman et al., "Data Brokers and the Sale of Data on U.S. Military Personnel," Duke Sanford School of Public Policy, November 2023. Totals are the quoted price times the record count.
The same broker offered to add extra data fields for half a cent each. That is the economics of the industry in one line: more detail about you is a rounding error on the invoice.
Why cheap data is a safety problem
Low prices are not good news for you. When a complete contact record costs a cent, the cost of targeting someone drops below the cost of caring who they are. A scammer, a stalker, or a fraud ring needs no budget - just a card and a plausible business name.
Brokers also hold far more than contact details. The Duke team obtained health data, financial details, and religious practice attached to named individuals. One broker said it held records on nearly two million veterans and over half a million active-duty personnel. If this is your worry, start with data brokers and stalking safety.
What the retail side charges for the same facts
Consumer people-search sites sell the same underlying data back to the public at an enormous markup, packaged as a subscription. Checked in August 2026, BeenVerified's own pricing page listed a monthly membership at $36.89 per month capped at 100 reports a month, or $71.94 billed every three months, which works out to $23.98 a month.
Put the two ends together: one month of that subscription costs more than 3,000 bulk records at the cheapest wholesale rate above. You are not the customer at either end of this market.
The retail tier is also where reappearing listings live, because those sites re-ingest and re-buy constantly. The mechanics are in why data brokers relist you.
How much money is in this industry
Pennies per record add up to billions, and the biggest firms are public companies with audited numbers. These are not people-search sites. They are the wholesale layer underneath the consumer-facing ones, selling audience and identity services to brands and risk teams.
Volume is the whole model. In its May 2014 report, the FTC found that one of nine brokers it studied held information on more than 1.4 billion consumer transactions and 700 billion data elements, while another added over 3 billion new data points a month. For a current count of firms, see how many data brokers have your data.
| Company | Latest reported annual revenue | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Experian plc | US$8,425 million, up 13% | Year ended 31 March 2026 |
| LiveRamp | US$813 million, up 9% | Year ended 31 March 2026 |
Sources: Experian plc FY26 full-year results announcement, 20 May 2026; LiveRamp fourth quarter and fiscal year 2026 results, 17 May 2026.
LiveRamp reported $614 million of that revenue as subscription based, across 846 direct subscription customers, 133 of which pay more than $1 million a year. On the same day, it announced an agreement to be acquired by Publicis Groupe in an all-cash transaction with an equity value of $2.5 billion. Both firms publish opt-out routes: see our Experian and LiveRamp guides.
Who is actually buying
The buyers fall into a few groups: marketers looking for audiences, lenders and insurers scoring risk, employers and landlords screening applicants, government and law enforcement agencies buying what they might otherwise need process to obtain, and AI developers assembling training data.
That last one is not speculation. California's SB 361, passed in 2025, requires registered brokers to disclose whether they have shared personal information with foreign actors, law enforcement, or developers of generative AI systems.
Brokers also sell to each other. In the FTC's 2014 study of nine data brokers, seven had shared consumer information with another broker in the same study. Your record does not sit in one building.
What it costs to be a data broker
Almost nothing, historically. Two states run public data broker registries, and until recently the price of admission was less than a night in a hotel. That is changing, but slowly, and only in those two states. Everywhere else, being a data broker costs nothing at all.
| Registry | Annual registration fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Vermont (current) | $100 | Due by January 31 under 9 V.S.A. 2446 |
| Vermont (from Jan 1, 2027) | $900 | Raised by H.211, signed June 16, 2026 |
| California (this year) | $6,000 | Plus a card-processing fee; funds the DROP platform |
Sources: Vermont Secretary of State filing fee schedule (9 V.S.A. 2446); Hunton Andrews Kurth on Vermont H.211; California Privacy Protection Agency, Information for Data Brokers.
California's fee is the outlier because the Delete Act makes registration fees fund the state's deletion platform. Failing to register there can cost $200 per day, and more than 575 brokers were registered as of February 2026. For the wider picture, see data broker registration laws.
How to take yourself off the market
You cannot change the pricing, but you can be absent from the inventory, and it costs nothing but time. Every major people-search site has a free opt-out, and the wholesale firms have their own suppression routes. Because the marginal cost of re-adding you is zero, expect to repeat this every few months.
- Start with the retail tier. The people-search sites ranking for your name do the most damage. RedactZero publishes free, dated opt-out guides for the major brokers.
- Then the wholesale tier. Experian, LiveRamp, Acxiom and Epsilon run their own opt-outs, and that is where the append and segment products draw from.
- Use DROP if you are in California. One free request through the state's Delete Request and Opt-out Platform reaches every registered broker, and from August 1, 2026 they must process it.
- Re-check every few months. Set a reminder, or have your exposure re-checked monthly so you only hear about it when something new appears.
If location data is your concern rather than address history, that market prices differently - see who buys your location data. For the full removal sequence, start at the Data Brokers hub.
Find out what is currently for sale
Run a free exposure scan to see which data brokers likely list you, plus any breaches tied to your email - no account, nothing stored.
Frequently asked questions
How much is my personal data worth to a data broker?
Individually, cents. Duke University researchers bought identified contact records on US military personnel for $0.12 to $0.32 per person in 2023, and one broker's rate card fell to $0.01 per person above 1.5 million records. Your value to a broker is as one row in a large file.
Do data brokers pay me anything for my data?
No. Brokers assemble profiles from public records, commercial feeds, and each other, with no transaction involving you. There is no payment, no notice, and in most states no duty to tell you the file exists.
Why is data about me so cheap?
Because it sells in bulk and the marginal cost of one more record is near zero. Brokers price by the thousand, so the per-person price drops sharply with order size. Cheap data is worse for you, not better: it lowers the cost of targeting you.
How much do people-search sites charge to look someone up?
Tens of dollars a month. Checked in August 2026, BeenVerified's pricing page listed a $36.89 monthly membership capped at 100 reports, or $71.94 billed quarterly. Prices change, so check the site yourself.
Is it legal for data brokers to sell my information?
Largely yes. Most of what people-search sites publish comes from legally public records, and no federal law bans the trade outright. Specific uses are restricted, mainly by the Fair Credit Reporting Act for employment, credit, and tenant screening.
Who buys data about me?
Marketers buying audiences, lenders and insurers scoring risk, employers and landlords screening applicants, government agencies, other brokers, and increasingly AI developers. California's SB 361 now requires registered brokers to disclose sharing with foreign actors, law enforcement, and generative AI developers.
Does it cost a broker money when I request deletion?
Processing costs staff time, and California charges registered brokers an annual fee - $6,000 this year - that funds the state deletion platform. That is why deadlines and penalties matter more than goodwill here.
Can I find out exactly what a broker holds on me?
Sometimes. Several large firms accept access requests, and California and other state laws give residents a right to know. In practice you get a summary rather than the raw file, and coverage varies by company and state.
Sources: Duke Sanford School of Public Policy (Sherman et al., November 2023); US Senate Commerce Committee staff report (December 2013); FTC, "Data Brokers: A Call for Transparency and Accountability" (May 2014); Experian plc FY26 results (May 2026); LiveRamp FY2026 results (May 2026); California Privacy Protection Agency; Vermont Secretary of State fee schedule; Hunton Andrews Kurth on Vermont H.211; BeenVerified pricing page (August 2026).